Triple axe murderer Henri van Breda gets three life sentences

AS FORMER Perth schoolboy Henri van Breda is sentenced for the murders of his parents and brother, his girlfriend watches on, grinning.

FORMER Perth schoolboy Henri van Breda has been given three life sentences for the murders of his parents and brother in South Africa.

Van Breda, 23, was also given a 15-year sentence for the attempted murder of his sister and an additional 12 months for obstruction of justice.

The former student of Perth’s exclusive Scotch College appeared emotionless tonight as the judge handed the sentences down for the horrific killings at his family’s luxury home in Stellenbosch, a scenic town in a wine-growing area.

Lawyers for van Breda indicated they would appeal the sentence.

Standing by van Breda during the trial has been his girlfriend Danielle Janse van Rensburg, who has maintained he was innocent.

In an interview with South African You magazine in 2016, she said she wanted people to know her boyfriend was not capable of such an atrocity and all he wanted was justice for his family.

“He told me that if I had any questions I can ask him and he’ll be honest with me,” she said in 2016, when she had been dating him for just four months.

“Anyone who spends a day with him will realise he couldn’t do such a thing. I believe in his innocence 100 per cent.”

The couple pictured at the airport this year. Picture: Jaco Marais/Netwerk24/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Henri van Breda and Danielle Janse van Rensburg in 2017. Picture: Lulama Zenzile/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images

Van Breda was dating someone else when his family was axed, and met Ms Janse van Rensburg at a Cape Town chef school in February 2016.

She said in the You magazine interview that he was a gentle person, “the tall, good-looking blue-eyed guy who kept looking at her in class”.

She has supported van Breda during the trial and was on hand when he was sentenced.

The only emotion van Breda showed as he waited in court to be sentenced were several smiles towards his girlfriend.

But he was emotionless after being sentenced.

South Africa's You magazine showing family axe killer Henri van Breda and his girlfriend Danielle Janse van Rensburg. Picture: You

Judge Siraj Desai described 23-year-old Henri van Breda’s January 2015 rampage as “savage and vicious” with “an almost unprecedented degree of disregard for one’s family”.

“Each murderous attack on a family member is a severe crime and warrants the severest punishment,” he told the packed Western Cape High Court in Cape Town. “They were attacks involving a high degree of uncontrolled violence. The victims were unarmed (and) they faced an axe-wielding son or brother, probably not expecting the worst.”

Henri van Breda appeared emotionless as the judge handed down sentences for the horrific killings of his parents and brother and the attempted murder of his sister. Picture: Brenton Geach/Gallo Images/Getty Images

“We have heard no explanation ... you have shown no remorse,” he said. “I’m searching for some human factor that to some degree diminishes the sheer seriousness of these crimes.”

“There must be something ... I’m appealing to (him) - put before me some reason for these attacks,” he said.

Van Breda was led away by court officers as his girlfriend watched on from the public gallery.

Danielle Janse van Rensburg (C), the girlfriend of convicted killer Henri van Breda (unseen). Picture: AFP

Van Breda had denied murdering his 21-year-old brother Rudi and parents Martin, 54, and Teresa, 55, and leaving his sister Marli struggling with near-fatal injuries to her head, neck and throat after the bloody attack in January 2015.

The trial generated global interest in how a privileged son unleashed such a brutal attack on his family, whose fortune - estimated at $16 million - was derived from property.

During the trial, Van Breda had told the court that a late-night intruder had entered the family’s luxury residence on the highly-guarded De Zalze Golf Estate.

Henri van Breda (far left) with his parents and siblings. He murdered his mother, father and brother with an axe and left his sister with near fatal injuries.

His claim had echoes of the defence used by Oscar Pistorius, who said he thought a burglar was hiding in an ensuite bathroom to explain why he fired four times through the door, killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

But judge Desai systematically took apart the defence case in a five-hour summary of the trial - and then read a verdict that he said “as a family man, it’s difficult” to deliver.

Henri van Breda arrives at court last month with his partner Danielle Janse van Rensburg.

Defence advocate Pieter Botha had called for a “merciful” sentencing, arguing that Van Breda was a first-time offender who was “barely 20” when he killed his family.

He said Van Breda had been in counselling for six months, was “appropriately emotional” when the murders were mentioned, and was taking medication for depression and epilepsy.

Since his conviction Van Breda has been held in the medical wing of South Africa’s notoriously violent Pollsmoor prison.

Henri Van Breda sits in the dock of the Western Cape High Court to hear his sentence. Picture: AFP/Rodger Bosch

Van Breda and Ms Janse van Rensburg were arrested in September 2016 for alleged dagga (cannabis) possession. Van Breda was held overnight and granted bail while Ms Janse van Rensburg was released on the night of her arrest, on bail.

The charges were eventually withdrawn.

“The Director of Public Prosecutions studied the docket and the evidence against Mr Van Breda and decided the State can’t prove its case against him, as he has been saying all along,” van Breda’s advocate Pieter Botha said outside the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.

Before returning to Cape Town, the South African family lived on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast where Martin van Breda ran a real estate firm. They resided in the suburb of Buderim at the time.

Before this, the family lived in Perth, where Henri and his brother Rudi attended Scotch College.